Influence of successful psychopharmacotherapy of anxiety-depressive spectrum disorders on the severity of chronic fatigue in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Aim. To assess the influence of psychopharmacotherapy (PPT) of anxiety and depressive disorders on fatigue severity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Materials and methods. 128 RA-patients were included. Severity of fatigue was measured with fatigue severity scale (FSS), clinically important fatigue was diagnosed in patients with FSS≥4. Anxiety and depressive disorders (ADD) were diagnosed by a licensed psychiatrist in 123 (96.1%) of RA-patients in accordance with ICD-10 in semi-structured interview. Severity of depression and anxiety was evaluated with Montgomery–Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) and Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-A). RA-patients with ADD were divided into the following treatment groups: 1 – сDMARDs ( n =39), 2 – сDMARDs+PPT (sertraline or mianserine), n =43, 3 – сDMARDs+bDMARDs ( n =32), 4 – сDMARDs+bDMARDs+PPT (sertraline or mianserine), n =9. Biologics treatment duration varied from 1 to 5 years, antidepressants – from 6 to 96 weeks. 83 (67.5%) RA patients were assessed at five-years follow-up. Multinominal logistic regression analysis was conducted to determine factors associated with clinically important fatigue. Results. Multinominal logistic regression analysis showed clinically important fatigue at baseline to be positively associated (OR 13.57; 95% CI 3.044–60.486; p =0.01) and remission of ADD – negatively associated (OR 0.162; 95% CI 0.032–0.809; p =0.027), with clinically important fatigue at 5 years follow-up (R 2 =0.385, p <0.0001). Conclusion. Due to significant relationship between mental health status, antidepressants treatment and clinically important fatigue in RA-patients, all patients reporting clinically important fatigue should be recommended mental health counselling by a licensed psychiatrist.